Robotic Bees to Pollinate Monsanto Crops

Title says it all really. Tiny robots that can pollinate flowers. Kinda awesome and kinda scary.

The Harvard Microrobotics Lab has been working on its Micro Air Vehicles Project since early 2009. Borrowing from the biomechanics and social
organization of bees, the team of researchers is undergoing the creation of tiny winged robots to fly from flower to flower, immune to the toxins
dripping from petals, to spread pollen. They even believe that they will soon be able to program the robobees to live in an artificial hive,
coordinate algorithms and communicate amongst themselves about methods of pollination and location of particular crops.

Also here is a youtube video describing it in better detail. I don't know how to embed so you will have to click on the link below.

I agree, with bees out of the picture, who otherwise would pollinate crops for free without asking, in the future it will be impossible to grow crop
without monsanto mechanics and GMO.. As well as legal approval coming..

Everything is being commandeered it seems, even the bees. Puts emphasis on the original idea that the declining population of the bees was
intentional from the get-go.. We live in dark times that will soon be darker than we ever could have imagined.

Bees aren't the only creatures capable of carrying pollen, so we can tone down the pessimism a notch. This can be used in areas where bee populations
have dwindled, or are absent altogether. Sure, natural bee populations would be the ideal pollen carriers, but in situations where that's not an
option, this is.

but the honey bee is the most effective of all the pollinators, their hives contain 60,000 to 80,000 bees all who are responsible for pollinationwww.backyardbeekeepers.com...
most insects and birds work alone and other bees like bumble bees have only a few hundred bees in the hive so they take far longer to get the job done
than honey bees, so the loss of them is very serious

Well since the bees are still dying and new species they make die, they have to do something I guess.

My husband brought home some tomatoes and cucumbers from Fred Meyer he didn't have his glasses and couldn't read the labels, they came from
Canada.

They tasted like soap or a chemical inside, both the tomatoes and the cucumber tasted just the same, he spit it out and we had to throw our salads
away. This taste was inside not on the outside and I checked all the rest of the ones he brought, they were all the same. Scary stuff.

This is so disturbing for soooo many reasons that other members have already touched upon in this thread.....Our window of opportunity to grow our own
food is closing.....Plant fruit trees, veggies, flowers, shrubs and herbs that attract bees, butterflies and birds.......harvest and colllect organic
seeds, they can still be found.

Besides the "obvious" of why this is a horrible idea that IMO...goes against nature....what are the implications of these "things" ? What happens
when they run into real bees or other creatures? Are they capable of spying too? What happens if I swat one, not that I ever try and hurt bees, but
if some creepy robot bee is coming at me, I might "disable" it, would I have to pay for it? I HATE this.......Monsanto is pure EVIL......

WOW! So let me get this straight. Harvard gets close to 10 million dollars from the stimulus to fund this robotic bee project, and now it will be used
for Monsanto crops. Will the Monsanto or Harvard companies pay back that 10 million? I mean really, why did our tax dollars go to fund this project?
Doesn't Harvard have enough money? This certainly is just another shovel full in Obama and his administrations pile of crap.

You're jumping to an awful lot of conclusions, as though I hate bees or something. I said that natural bee populations would be ideal, but where
that's not an option, these things can do the same job, perhaps better. I don't think you have to worry about them in urban areas, these seem
specifically tied to crops and preserves.

Wow. It will also make it next to impossible for the home gardener to accomplish much if the real bees die off and all that is left is the robot bees,
I am sure they are programmed to only pollinate the Monsanto fields and not the gardens and small farms of the rest of us. Talk about a complete
monopoly. This disgusts me. Thanks for the heads up.

That line about toxins is pure spin from the article. Have you ever done gardening? Have you ever used weedkiller or pesticide? OMG TOXINS!?! Pure
spin. I thought people on this website knew how to identify bunk speech in news articles.

The problem is, if natural Bee populations are dwindling as a direct result of GMO's and Chemicals produced by Monsanto...there is a conflict of
interest.....The US government has written in to LAW that Monsanto is untouchable just a few weeks ago....I don't think I am "unreasonably" VERY
Worried.

I would be curious to know if all these "wonderful" studies conducted on the tax payers dime, for something most people don't want, included how
these "creepy" robot bees will interact with a natural creature ? Would it kill a bird that might eat one ? What happens if one gets stuck in a
spider web ?

I'm sure you don't mean harm to Bees, but I really disagree that a robot Bee could possibly be better then a real Bee.......

I also see the
potential for more sinister uses for these "things".......

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